CITIZENS CLAIM ALL CHARGES REFUTED

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 203, 25 May 1944, Page 7

CITIZENS CLAIM ALL CHARGES REFUTED

Cr. Appleton’s Address CANDIDATES REPLY TO LABOUR “In, the dirtiest election I have known in 27 years’ public life, characterized by a mass of half-truths and mis-statements unceasingly repeated on the foreign principle that constant reiteration induces belief, every opposition charge has been completely blown out,” said Cr. Will Appleton, Citizens’ candidate for the Wellington mayoralty, to a full Concert Chamber last night. Cr. Appleton read this telegram from Mr. A. C. Nathan, chairman of the Blenheim branch, National Barty: Reference advertisement today. Nations! Party meeting referred to decided to take no action regarding local -body elections. Subsequently a non-party citizens organization established which decided nominations and is directing campaign. Cr. Appleton said his opponents had been so completely answered in Wellington that they had to go to Blenheim for material, and even then it was easily refuted. The mayor, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, presided. Or. R. L. Macahster, Mr. E. R. Toop and Mr. C Meachen were the supporting speakers „ Mr. Hislop, after recalling that in a half-column report of Mr. Roberts s address, he had pointed out nine striking inaccuracies, dealt with the issue of the introduction of party politics. He quoted the last issue of the New Zealand Tramway Workers’ Journal, which he said was presumably for the purpose of publishing general matter of interest to tramwaymen. Of its 16 pages, one was devoted to a “stirring call to action signed by Mr. Roberts as president of the New Zealand Labour Party. Another page was given to a “message to tramwaymen,” signed by the president of the Federation of Labour and Minister ot Manpower, Mr. McLagan. Almost another page was allocated to an article by Mr. M. Moohan, secretary of the New Zealand Labour Partv entitled your own employers. That would tell the people just who was introducing party a( ]dress said'the New Zealand Institute of Valuers, which, in its ignorance, Labour advertised as the valuers of property for rating, had well refuted Mr. Roberts’s charges about city and suburban rating. The reports of the late Mr. Armstrong, as Minister of Housing, were a direct rebuttal ox Labour charges that the council alone had power to demolish slums, and it was only the prospect of £750 a year to give him £2OOO in all which awoke Mr. Roberts from his Rip Van WWe period to display interest in housing. His opponent did not ask why the State could not even reticulate for many months State houses built at Lower Hutt. Or where was the performance of the Governments 1943 election promise to build 3000 houses this year. Instead he tried to visit the omissions of the Government on to the council. Not only did Labour ignore the war and claim that they could have insulated Wellington from its effects, but they forgot the tremendous burded placed on the council by major earthquakes' which did £1,000,000 worth of damage, not forgetting'severe floods. But the services to the citizens had been maintained uninterrupted. ' His opponent referred to defeated candidates, forgetting the galling defeat he suffered in the last two harbour board elections. " And he claimed credit for quicker turning round of ships when in fact the present cargo control committee was the direct successor to the bar-’ bour sheds advisory cbmmittee elected in April, 1941, by all parties interested in handling cargo. In 18 -months its advisory work was so effective that it framed draft regulations, at Government request, that it might be constituted a control committee with definite powers, That'same committee, for whose honorary work Mr. Roberts claimed credit, was constituted a control committee with the addition of one representative of the Ministry of Supply and one only of the Waterfront Control Commission. Apart from its one representative the commission had no authority over the committee’s actions, which were defined by Government regulations.

“You have your, choice,” concluded Mr. Appleton. “Proved men of liberal, progressive principles with a record of service which has kept your city in the fore-, front, its trading departments paying, reserves to overtake war-deferred jobs and provide work for those who will need it —in short, performances on what you have contributed to the' city purse.; not promises to drain your pockets to the depths.” Mr. Meachen. who is secretary of the Blood Transfusion Society and the Wellington ■Centre, St. John Ambulance, said the present hospital board had done splendid work and he would be proud to be associated with it. His own ideas were to tackle sickness at the right end; to spread the knowledge of the ■ first principles of preventive medicine so that the numbers in. hospital would be lessened and bigger hospitals unnecessary. He wanted to see annual voluntary medical examinations that disease might be arrested at the start. He would advocate clinics to make this possible. Main Charges Answered. . Cr. MaealiSter, answering misgovernment. housing and slum criticisms, said Citizens’ councils had built Wellington from a village to a great city. It had modern drainage, water reticulation sufficient till now and about to be augmented to supply generations ahead : the catchment area needed was secured years ago f>y a Citizens’ mayor. Sir Charles Norwood. They installed the first electric lighting system in the southern hemisphere, operating today at the cheapest domestic rate south of the line. They built a stand-by plant which the Government today used to offset the effects of its own lack of hydro-electrical planning. Citizens’ councillors like Sir Charles Norwood and Or. Martin Luckie instituted the milk system second to none; Labour tickets elsewhere praised and promised it.' The tramway system, even with wartime defects, compared more than favourably with any other.. Trolley bus specifications were with the English agents. After all these improvements, the city debt in the last 10 years bal been reduced by £1,000,000. Labour promised houses by the thousands at fvOv each and 12/6 a week, and would-be home builders said, “let’s wait for a State house.” They were still waiting. The council gave the Government free of cost, bar services, land for hundreds of houses in the hope that those in slum conditions, old couples, widows and people who could not buy would get the houses. Instead the State chose its tenants very carefully and many of the most deserving cases were unsatisfied. The council s scheme built 109 houses till Government stopped building. There was money waiting for 400 more houses and the council would not stop at that. Mr. Nash refused the council finance at State house building rates of interest-to enable it to embark on a slum clearance and house building Scheme. Nor could the council get a copy of the z Slum Clearance mooted as far back as 1939 by the late Mr. Armstrong, as Minister of Housing. These were all facts, not specious promises. The rest was up to the electors. Mr. Toop said that most of the propaganda of the Labour candidates was insulting to the intelligence' of tw elec, tors. Every charge against the J itizens ticket, had been answered and their critics confounded. He was particular'? coll ' evened with the position of tramway employees who in some cases were working shifts of 5i and six hours without a break. On eight-hour shifts a meal break of 20 to 30 minutes was not siimcien. for the good health and welfare of employees. “Even if it means some delay in time-tables, the health of these men and women must have first consideration.

■ “Seventy-five per cent, of the ratepayers of Wellington are working men who have purchased their own homes. Omy 25 per cent, of the ratepayers beiong to the class which has been christened ‘Big Business.’ ” said Mr. R. A. Wright, Citizens’ candidate, at the Manners ■Street Reserve yesterday. “If the schemes ot our opponents are carried into effect the rates may easily be quadrupled,” saiu Mr. Wright. “If this were done it would mean the ruin of many of the working men ratepayers.” Reform was necessary in municipal affairs, bur it should no l , be done at the expense of the small ralepayer. “Big Business” could pass increased rates on to the consumer; the working man ratepayer could not. All he could do was to Day and pay and pay.